Roasted Beet & Fig Salad with Goat Cheese and Blackberry Balsamic Reduction is an amazing side dish to any main entrée! This nutritious, flavorful beet salad is just as nutritious as it is tasty!
This simple fig, red beet and goat cheese salad combines sweet, creamy, tangy flavors and all the textures for an amazing side dish!
Fresh, beautiful red beets are roasted to perfection along with ripe figs, then tossed in a homemade blackberry balsamic reduction with chopped walnuts and creamy goat cheese.
Let’s have a conversation about roasting. Roasted beets: good. Roasted figs: great! Roasted figs make me want to sing corny songs.
It’s probably healthy for my relationship that I don’t act on this impulse. And this salad…serious fist pumping, chest bumping, football-hiking UGH!
I did just say all of those things about a beet salad. Unabashedly.
Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad Ingredients:
Fresh Red Beets: Pick up a bunch of red beets for the roasting. You can also use any kind of beets. Golden beets are particularly lovely here too.
Goat Cheese: Goat chevre (goat cheese) pairs magically with beets! You can use plain goat cheese or an herb infused version. Swap it out for gorgonzola or feta cheese if you prefer.
Fresh Figs: Another magical pairing, fresh roasted figs are an amazing accompaniment to roasted beets and goat cheese! Sweet and juicy figs add bursts of natural sweetness and pops of texture!
Walnuts: I like toasting the walnuts before adding them to the salad for some extra crunch, but using raw walnuts works great too. Swap them out for pecans or pistachios if you’d like.
Blackberry Balsamic Ingredients:
All you need for the easy balsamic reduction is fresh blackberries, balsamic vinegar, honey and the willingness to boil.
Soaking beets in a fruity balsamic vinegar is a surefire way of turning beet naysayers into beet lovers. Life’s changing!
For the past few weeks, I have been roasting a few beets at a time before the workweek starts so that I can have them in salads during the week.
I feel like such an adult when I tell you these things. I then do sophisticated things with the roasted beets like toss them together with blackberry balsamic vinegar, roasted figs, goat cheese and walnuts.
You know what else I do with this salad?
I double salad it. Put it on top of mixed greens, add in some blueberries and stain everything red. You can double salad, too. All you need is green and blue…berries. Okay, I’m done.
And that’s all. Beets bring you a good life.
Also try my Roasted Beet Arugula Salad with Maple Balsamic Vinaigrette and my Farro Salad with Tomatoes!
Fig Red Beet and Goat Cheese Salad Recipe
Ingredients
Roasted Beet & Fig Salad:
- 1 large red beet chopped
- 4 ripe figs quartered
- 2 Tbsp walnuts roasted
- 3 Tbsp goat cheese
- 2 tsp olive oil
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
Blackberry Balsamic:
- ¾ cup ripe blackberries
- ½ cup balsamic vinegar
- 2 teaspoons honey
Instructions
Prepare the Blackberry Balsamic Vinegar
- Heat the balsamic vinegar and berries in a saucepan over medium heat, covered. Bring to a full boil
- Remove cover and smash blackberries with a fork, allowing the mixture to continue to boil. Reduce the liquid by 1/3.
- Add the honey and stir to incorporate.
- Use a fine strainer to strain out the blackberry pulp and push on the pulp with a spoon to release as much of the juices as possible.
- Pour the blackberry balsamic vinegar into a jar and put it in the refrigerator to cool.
Prepare the Beet Salad
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Scrub the beet and chop off the greens (you can discard the beet greens or use them in your cooking). Dice the beet into ¼” to ½” cubes. Place the chopped beet on a sheet of aluminum foil. Fold the edges of the foil over on top of each other, creating a package of beet.
- Put the beet package on a cookie sheet and roast in the oven for 50 minutes or until beets are soft when poked with a fork. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.
- While beets are roasting, quarter the figs and place them on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Roast them for 10 to 12 minutes, until their juices begin seeping out. Remove from oven and set aside.
- When everything is nice and roasted and cooled, arrange the beets, figs, walnuts and goat cheese on a plate. Drizzle everything with 2 teaspoons of olive oil.
- Drizzle desired amount of blackberry balsamic vinegar over the ingredients, saving what you don’t use for future salads.
- Serve salad either warm or cold!
Nutrition
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I. Love. Figs. And beets! And I have both in my fridge right now AND company coming for dinner. Time for me to go preheat the oven and get to roasting! This exactly what I was looking for when I was hunting Pinterest for fig salad ideas. I don’t have walnuts or goat cheese but I bet feta would be tasty! Will toss with greens and act all posh as I serve it to my guests!
Alas, I do not enjoy myself some beets. BUT I might just bathe MYSELF in that balsamic vinegar situation. Fruity balsamic? WHAAAAT?!
Go finish that book.
Roasted beets are the ONLY beets I will eat. 😀 So this salad already sounds delicious to me! Your photos are gorgeous–and congrats on finishing the book! I bet you are doing a happy dance about that–I know I would be!
I just got home from vacay so I’m late but WHAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! LOVE the new design girl!!! Looks AH-mazing. Any that salad is dang purdy too 😉 I can’t get enough of figs or beets this time of year, this will be a summer staple!
Yaaaaay! Thanks so much, my dear! I’m glad you like it. I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out. Hope you had fun on vacation!!
Such an earthy, sweet salad! I love this, Julia!
Girl, this salad sums up what I love most about summertime. YUM! BTW great job kicking butt and finishing things up with the book!!!
What a gorgeous salad! I could it eat it every single day for lunch!!!
G’day! I love roatsed beets too!
Love the combo of beets and figs…YUM..healthy and delicious too!
Cheers! Joanne
Now on FB too http://www.facebook.com/whatsonthelist
Beautiful photos, Julia!! I wish I could get on the ball and roast a bunch of beets before the work week! This salad look absolutely gorg and totally delicious!!
I need to eat about 12 lbs of this salad after my vacation! What a beautiful dish!
This is an 11 out of 10!! I adore roasted beets in summer.
Thanks, my dear! We could do some serious beet damage to this salad and wash it all down with a glass of wine! 🙂
I love roasted beets! We have trouble finding figs here, though, so when you visit us, maybe you could bring us some, ’cause I looove them. This looks yummy. Ok. Off to vote for your recipe again. I’m proud of myself for remembering each day. 🙂
So funny, I have never ever seen figs at a grocery store until the ones I picked up for the salad. It’s a smaller mom-and-pop store and the big grocery stores in this area don’t carry figs. I wonder what part of the country is getting them??
I don’t know. I have seen them on occasion at our Fresh Market, but that’s hit and miss and usually only in the winter. I would have thought for sure it would be in your neck of the woods. We do have good sweet corn around here, though, but that wouldn’t do much for this salad. I’ll keep an eye out for them, though.